The xviii. daie of April, at Westminster was Thomas lorde Cromewell,
created Erle of Essex, and made greate Chamberlain of England, whiche
ever the Erles of Oxenford had, whiche promocions he enjoyed short
tyme, as after . . . male appere. . . .

The xix. day of July, Thomas lorde Cromewel, late made erle of Essex,
as before you have hard, beyng in the counsail chamber, was sodainly
apprehended, and committed to the tower of London, the whiche many
lamented, but mo rejoysed. . . . And the xxviii. daie of July was brought
to the skaffold on the tower hill.

The juxtaposition of these quotations from Hall's Chronicle1 brings
out the sudden reversal of fortune which was liable to overtake the
great in Tudor times and which the Elizabethans used to point a
moral and adorn a tale. But Cromwell himself knew that his fall
was imminent and he seems to have warned his friends, including
Wyatt, of the danger. The failure of his foreign policy, the King's
dislike of Anne of Cleves as a bedfellow, Cromwell's ill-judged
advice to Anne, the bitter opposition of the Duke of Norfolk and
others, the enemies Cromwell had made by his, or Henry's religious
policy, all combined to bring about his downfall.2

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